Friday, February 5, 2010

Sweet Potato Cake

My mom used to make this cake when I was a little girl! When I moved out of the house, it was one of the recipes my mom hand copied into a beautiful recipe book for me ...

However, since I've left home (oh... roughly 5 years ago!) I haven't made this cake - largely because my dearly loved Frog Prince is allergic to pumpkin. I decided to render that, after having discovered that sweet potatoes make a wonderful substitution for pumpkin.

Seriously. Trust me on this. I took this in to work as a "thank you" to some of my colleagues for helping me with my data collection, and one of them said, "this is really good pumpkin cake!" To which I replied, "it's actually made with sweet potatoes." He responded, "Wow, I don't like sweet potatoes -- this tastes just like pumpkin."

Yep.

It tastes just like I remember.

Sweet Potato Cake - Adapted from Mom

1 pkg. yellow cake mix

1/4 C water

2 eggs

~16 oz sweet potato puree

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ginger

Combine the sweet potatoes and water in a mixing bowl and mix well.

Then, add in the cake mix, eggs and spices.

Mix on low speed until moist, and then on medium for 2 minutes.

Pour batter into a greased 9x13 glass baking dish and bake until cake springs back when lightly pressed in the center ... about 40-45 minutes.

Serve with cream cheese frosting, or whipped cream, if desired. It's also great just plain :)

That's how I prefer it.

But, I'm strange. I prefer almost all my cakes without frosting -- warm from the oven. Mmmm. Mmmm.

I stumbled across your blog a while back and LOVE your recipes and posts. I can't wait to try some of them. I felt compelled to write today though when I saw the photo of your Mom's handwriting. I thought my Mother had written it...their writing is IDENTICAL. Just a crazy fact that I thought I would share with a complete stranger...oh and to say, keep up the great work, you have a wonderful blog!!

Great idea! It's funny to me--most of us don't associate the taste of pumpkin with pumpkin! We associate it with pumpkin pie spices. Pretty cool that you can use those spices with another soft, orange substance, and end up with about the same flavor!

When cooking, please make sure to follow kitchen hygiene and safety -- cook meat until internal temperature is at safe levels, always check labels for allergens, and use caution in the kitchen -- I love sharing recipes, but I am not liable for damages done as a result of trying these recipes.